This week, I’m attempting to change your life in 10 minutes. It’s a big ask, granted, but I reckon I can have a good crack at it.
Step one: find a 10-minute pocket in your day and protect it with your life – hyperbole, but you get the idea. For me, setting a slightly earlier alarm and finding 10 minutes shortly after waking up works well. For you, it could be different. You just have to find a consistent point in your day when you can spare 10 minutes.
Step two: use that 10 minutes to move. It doesn’t have to be the same thing every day; you could walk, do a bite-sized bodyweight strength training session (like those in the exercise snacking article linked below) or follow a yoga flow on YouTube. You just have to move.
And that’s it. No magic exercises, no pricey products or finicky protocols, no overhauling your entire existence – just 10 minutes of movement at a consistent time each day.
Below, I’ll explain why this works.
One workout will not transform you. It could be the most perfect workout in the world, but it is still only a minuscule snippet of a much larger life. Instead, it is what you do consistently that dictates your future health and fitness fortunes.
For this reason, committing to 10 minutes daily can be more powerful than occasional hour-long sweat sessions.
The rewards are immediate. Just a few minutes of movement can improve your mood, reduce stress and help your body regulate blood sugar better.
After a few weeks of daily exercise, the benefits become even more significant, according to exercise scientist and world-leading muscle growth expert Dr Brad Schoenfeld – one of this week’s interviewees.
“From resistance training, it usually takes around four weeks to see the benefits,” he says. “Muscle growth tends to lag behind slightly, taking more like six to eight weeks, but you’ll see improvements in strength.”
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And after months, if paired with an appropriate diet, Dr Schoenfeld says you may start to notice “prominent” effects of exercise on your appearance – more muscle, less fat, better composition. Your heart, lungs and many other internal systems also become more efficient, with all of these factors plugging into better overall health and reducing your risk of a laundry list of chronic illnesses.
However, it is not your physical health that undergoes the greatest change, in my opinion. It is your mindset (a word that makes many people switch off, but stick with me on this one).
The common denominator I’ve found between fit and healthy people who exercise regularly is that they identify as fit and healthy people who exercise regularly. Through this identity, making healthy choices in life becomes second nature.
“Want some help with your bags?” “Nah, I’ve got this.”
“Shall we take the lift?” “All good, the stairs are right there.”
“Takeaway for tea?” “I know a quick, tasty recipe I can throw together with veggies in the fridge instead.”
When you become someone who exercises, further healthy behaviours become frictionless, or at the very least far easier than before. The quickest way to identify as someone who exercises is to do it every day, whether that’s for five minutes or an hour.
Debates rage over how long it takes to forge a habit, but after a few months of dedicating 10 minutes daily to intentional movement, I’ve found it becomes oven-baked into your routine. You feel odd without it. You experiment to find the exercise methods you enjoy the most and prioritise these mediums. You even start to look forward to it.
Now, having applied this advice for a few months, you are someone who exercises regularly. Your body feels and moves better than it did before: running for the bus is a breeze, and climbing the stairs no longer leaves you winded.
You want to support your exercise efforts, so you naturally lean towards healthier choices in life, and an avalanche of benefits arrives as a result. You might even start to enjoy movement so much you want to increase your daily exercise window over time. All from 10 minutes per day.
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